<h2 id="itk-snap-readme">ITK-SNAP README</h2>
<h3 id="welcome">Welcome!</h3>
<p>Thank you for your interest in ITK-SNAP! By using this program you are joining an ever growing community of users from research labs around the world. ITK-SNAP is an open-source software application made possible by the committment of dedicated developers, who often make contributions on a volunteer basis. Original development of ITK-SNAP was supported by the U.S. National Library of Medicine through PO 467-MZ-202446-1. Subsequent development of ITK-SNAP version 2.0 has been supported by the U.S. National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and BioEngineering and the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience through grant 1 R03 EB008200-01. Development of ITK-SNAP versions 3.0 - 3.6 has been supported by the NIH grant 1R01 EB014346.</p>
<p>ITK-SNAP is the result of over 15 years of work by many researchers, software engineers and students. Please visit the <a href="http:/itksnap.org/credits.php">Credits page</a> to learn about the team that made ITK-SNAP possible!</p>
<h3 id="please-remember-to-cite-itk-snap">Please remember to cite ITK-SNAP</h3>
<p>Citations in published work is the best way for us to gauge ITK-SNAP impact. As of the Fall of 2016, ITK-SNAP has been cited by <a href="https://goo.gl/YoM9EK">over 2000 papers</a>. If you use ITK-SNAP for a publication, please cite the paper below.</p>
<ul>
<li>Paul A. Yushkevich, Joseph Piven, Heather Cody Hazlett, Rachel Gimpel Smith, Sean Ho, James C. Gee, and Guido Gerig. User-guided 3D active contour segmentation of anatomical structures: Significantly improved efficiency and reliability. Neuroimage. 2006 Jul 1; 31(3):1116-28.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="getting-started">Getting Started</h3>
<p>ITK-SNAP was designed for ease of use. There are several resources to get started with it.</p>
<ul>
<li>If you downloaded ITK-SNAP as a binary executable from <a href="http://www.itksnap.org/download/snap">itksnap.org</a>, you can get started by reading the <a href="http://www.itksnap.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Documentation.HomePage">online tutorials</a>.</li>
<li>If you downloaded ITK-SNAP source code, please follow these <a href="http://www.itksnap.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Documentation.BuildingITK-SNAP">online instructions</a> to compile and build ITK-SNAP.</li>
<li>You will need a 3D image to use this software. Images with which ITK-SNAP is known to work are found on the <a href="http://www.itksnap.org/download/snap">ITK-SNAP download page</a></li>
<li>There are also materials (images, exercises, video) from training courses available on the <a href="http://www.itksnap.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Documentation.SNAP3">documentation page</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="asking-questions">Asking Questions</h3>
<p>If you have a question about ITK-SNAP, here are the places where you may find an answer. Keep in mind that since ITK-SNAP in not a commercial product, it may take some time for an answer to arrive.</p>
<ul>
<li>If you have an question about how to use SNAP or why it's not doing what it should, post in on the <a href="http://www.itksnap.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=MailingLists">ITK-SNAP Users' List</a>.</li>
<li>If you have a technical question or a questing related to ITK, join the <a href="http://www.itk.org/HTML/MailingLists.htm">ITK Users' Mailing List</a> and post your question there.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="get-involved">Get Involved!</h3>
<p>Your participation as a user, developer or sponsor is essential to ensuring a bright future for ITK-SNAP. There are many ways in which you can contribute to the stability and quality of this program:</p>
<ul>
<li>By participating in the <a href="http://www.itksnap.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=MailingLists">ITK-SNAP User and Developer Mailing Lists</a>.</li>
<li>By reporting bugs and suggesting enhancements using the <a href="http://www.itksnap.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.BugTracker">Bug Tracker</a>.</li>
<li>By joining the ITK-SNAP Development Team on <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/itk-snap">SourceForge.net</a> and contributing source code.</li>
</ul>
